The cryptocurrency exchange was supposed to be established by the end of 2022, according to Indonesia’s financial services regulator, but there were a number of challenges which made it unfeasible.
Six months later than its initial goal of December 2022, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade apparently plans to launch a national cryptocurrency exchange by June this year.
In Jakarta on February 2, at the opening of Crypto Literacy Month, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan announced the revised target launch date. He mentioned that the government is presently determining which companies fit the requirements to join the exchange.
Zulkifli says that the ministry’s crypto exchange may include all five of the active cryptocurrency exchanges that are currently registered with the nation’s regulatory authorities.
As of now, these exchanges handle all trades within the country, while the ministry’s exchange serves as a clearing house and custodian in the local cryptocurrency market.
The clearinghouse facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers by acting as a middleman. The movement of assets between the two parties would also be managed by it in its role as custodian.
The trade minister pleaded with the public to wait for the nation’s cryptocurrency exchange to be ready, stressing that otherwise, things might get messy. People aren’t much aware of [crypto trading], so the government does not want this to have a massive impact on the public.
Indonesia had originally intended to launch its cryptocurrency exchange by the end of 2022, but it was postponed due to a number of challenges.
The Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, also known as Bappebti, now supervises the trading of crypto assets in the nation together with commodity contracts, but that authority will transfer to the Financial Services Authority if a national exchange is established.
The change in regulation is a result of new crypto regulations that were approved on December 15 and which classify cryptocurrencies and other digital assets as regulated financial securities.
As announced by Bank of Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo on Dec. 5, a digital currency issued by the central bank would be the nation’s only digital legal tender.